Shopsmith Forums

I've had my Shopsmith almost 30 years and have been building lots of different furniture projects with it that long.
My Wife and I decided that we need a Murphy bed for one of the bedrooms, so I got a kit and started.
In all my woodworking years, I've never built anything before from instructions, and I'm finding for me, this is a very difficult way to build something. I build things much easier when the instructions are in my head rather than on paper.

garys wrote:I've had my Shopsmith almost 30 years and have been building lots of different furniture projects with it that long.
My Wife and I decided that we need a Murphy bed for one of the bedrooms, so I got a kit and started.
In all my woodworking years, I've never built anything before from instructions, and I'm finding for me, this is a very difficult way to build something. I build things much easier when the instructions are in my head rather than on paper.

Sorry, but you are subject to 'Murphy's Law'!:D

Hi,

It is very rare that I work off other peoples plans, and when I do it feels strange, like I don't really know what I'm doing. When you do your own you already know what you are doing and if you got something wrong you only have yourself to blame.... I've done enough "plan" projects to know it is not uncommon for there to be errors, that is enough that I often do a free hand sketch and check measurements.

Speaking of the Murphy bed, I'm planning on building one this summer, the one that flips up on its side rather then the headboard version. Plans/hardware from Rockler when they have a sale on. What route are you taking?

Ed

I have posted this before I'm pretty sure. One thing I don't care for trying to work directly from plans is that many plans are like "Norm" did it where he went someplace and saw something he liked and "measured it up". A lot of plans I've seen contain a lot of really silly measurements like a board width of 3 15/16" at a point where it really didn't even matter. OK, maybe that was the measurement of the item being measured but it probably started as 4" but maybe the original builder got off a little or even had a rough grain spot and had to sand that board a little extra. Call it 4" and get on with life, don't enter a 3 15/16" measurement...
On a lot of antique items the original builder may well have not even had any idea of what the dimensions were. He may have well just started building a frame etc. at "about that much by about that much" using his eye to set scale based on what he thought looked good (much like many of us grab a paint can etc. to mark a round corner at a "nice" radius ).
It didn't matter what the dimension was in inches as long as he cut all parts matching by superimposing and marking. If he needed to make something like doors for an opening he would frequently mark a stick with the opening size and the allow "about that much" for clearance... Somebody making plans for the item measures it and comes up with an almost silly entry of 18 13/32".
I much prefer just having a picture and going from there or even just an idea in my head.

Then again I am a card carrying maverick.


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Maybe you can draw some ideas from this site. I saw their stuff at the Indianapolis Home Show yesterday.

http://www.hoosierwallbeds.com/

I especially liked one that was a set of 4 book shelves with the center two sitting about a foot farther into the room with a nice header above them. You just walked up to them and slid each of the center 2 units off to each side in front of the outside 2 like a pair of sliding doors (overhead tracks). Then you pulled the bed down. Unlike the ones with fake panels these actually held a good quantity of books or other items. If you watch you can spot them in the slide show.


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beeg wrote:Isn't the Murphy bed hardware about $500.00?

Rockler sells it for about $300, but as reible said, they do put it on sale occasionally so you can get it for a bit less than that.

reible wrote:Speaking of the Murphy bed, I'm planning on building one this summer, the one that flips up on its side rather then the headboard version. Plans/hardware from Rockler when they have a sale on. What route are you taking?

I'm building the "side-flip" model because we feel it fits the room better that way.

Sounds like who ever gets started going on this first should be posting the build story here so we can share how it goes.

Just got a Rockler catalog in the mail, front cover says 20% off but I haven't had time to look at the details yet. Sometimes it is better to get free shipping but I think this costs enough that the 20% is a better deal.

Ed

garys wrote:Rockler sells it for about $300, but as reible said, they do put it on sale occasionally so you can get it for a bit less than that.




I'm building the "side-flip" model because we feel it fits the room better that way.

Mine's about halfway done. I haven't taken any pictures yet because right now, it is a pile of cut out wood parts. Give me about 2 weeks and I expect to have it mostly done, or completely done.
I really need to get moving because my daughter-in-law will be in town for a business meeting in mid-February, and she needs the bedroom.

The Murphy bed is done. I used the kit from Rockler. Right now, they have it on sale for 20% off for anybody interested in building one. The kit they sell is from this company.
http://www.wallbed.com/
This kit uses struts to lift it. They are like the struts commonly used in car trunks and hoods to hold them open. I would much prefer springs of some kind because of durability and the ability to adjust springs, but if you build it exactly to their instructions, it works very well. (at least until the struts blow out like they do on new cars).